Saturday, February 28, 2009

Came back from work and found a hatchling of the Zebra Dove (Merbok) in the incubator. So, now I can consider myself a Merbok breeder? hahahaha! This is a long story. The parents of the baby merbok actually belongs to a friend. He passed me the pair plus 2 unhatched eggs and a few weeks old baby with weak legs. I had no choice but to try incubating the eggs.

After a successful hatching of the first egg, I panicked as the baby is just too small and did not want to co-operate by opening its beak to be fed. After a few phone calls, then decided to try contacting a breeder of Tekukurs to try to find some Tekukur Jawa as foster parents.

Finally managed to arrange for fostering with a pair of Tekukur Jawa which belongs to Pakcik Awie. Transported the baby to his place by 10p.m. After placing the baby with another unhatched egg for the Tekukur Jawa to take care, sat down with Pakcik Awie and chit chat over a glass of tea. Saw a nice cage made by his friend and bought it. Would be good for training Merbok pikat for ground use (pacak tanah). Thats me "pantang" got new "toy" hehehe! Made arrangement to borrow his Tekukur pikat with a broken wing. Reputed to be worth RM1k before the wing got broken due to an accident.

Not to mention an hour in the morning putting up hooks for Mata Putehs at the padang, trimming some of the branches and "roti canai" breakfast with Mr Wee. One of those hectic hobby related days ;)

Friday, February 27, 2009

An example of how a Puteh (Zosterops) should sound like if it "buka". It is an area where I took some time to learn when I first started keeping these little fellas. Initially just keeping them for their canary like mid-tones ;)Then making a point to bring up birds to their max potential as best as I know how. Must admit it was quite challenging most of the time....

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

There are some Sunbirds who has been a regular visitor. Very hard to capture them on video as they dart here and there. Easy when they are feeding but difficult when they are fighting, singing and calling to each other - especially rival males.

Have noted that they chirp quite similarly to Zosterops and do their mid-tones too. Very funny and entertaining fellas. Will try to design a honey feeder for them ;)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

One of the most enjoyable thing about these Mata Putehs are their sub-song, mid-tone, tiong-aw or whatever we care to call it. It is also a characteristic of a male bird and often they will mimic other species of bird's call in their mid-tone.

This is one of them that is allowed in the living room to provide some soft chirping indoor ;)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A note about the Serindit that I am keeping. It is kept in a crude D.I.Y. wire mesh cage and maintenance is according to standard minimalist style I have observed most villagers practicing. All of my bird cages have a bottom with newspaper linings which are removed almost daily. The minimalist style I adopt for my Serindit is to let the bird's droppings free fall down hahahaha!

So, it is not an indoor kind of thing to practice. The Serindit's cage is normally hung in the garden (where it fertilises the lawn), up in the metal pole (meant for doves), in front of the cicken coup and above cement floor where the droppings are easily cleaned. So far, so good. The Serindit has learned to dance his comical display which shows a sign of being in "form", very hardworking and above all looks healthy.

Will try this fella out in competitions should there be any organised - that would be the fastest way to learn how to appreciates the finer point of its song. Otherwise, I should be contented enough to have him at home.

The noisy fella in the background is the blue-crowned hanging parrot a.k.a. Serindit